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Hand Transplantation: The Louisville Experience

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Transplantation of Composite Tissue Allografts

In February 1964, Dr. Roberto Gilbert Elizalde performed a right forearm transplant on a 28-year-old sailor with a blast injury, laying the foundation to the field of hand transplantation. However, it was not until September 1991, that the first conference on composite tissue allotransplantation (CTA) was held in Washington, DC to “determine the clinical feasibility of transplanting limbs in patients with limb loss” and the “direction in which clinically oriented limb transplantation research should head.” In June 1996, we organized a team of surgeons comprising hand, plastic, and transplant specialties along with members representing transplant psychiatry, pathology, tissue typing, hand therapy, and organ procurement. This constituted the Louisville Hand Transplant team. In November 1997, the First International Symposium on Composite Tissue Allotransplantation was convened in Louisville, Kentucky. The goal of this meeting was to discuss the “scientific, clinical and ethical barriers standing in the way of performing the first human hand transplant.” International experts at the meeting predicted that limb allotransplantation was not far from “becoming a clinical reality.” In September 1998, 34 years after the first hand transplant, surgeons in Lyon, France, performed the world's second hand transplant.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    Vijay S. Gorantla (Research Fellow)

  2. Kutz Hand Care Center, University of Louisville, Kleinert, Louisville, Kentucky

    Warren C. Breidenbach III (Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery)

Authors
  1. Vijay S. Gorantla
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  2. Warren C. Breidenbach III
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Surgical Research UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medicine Medical School, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, New Jersey

    Charles W. Hewitt (Professor of Surgery Head) (Professor of Surgery Head)

  2. Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    W. P. Andrew Lee (Professor of Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery Chief) (Professor of Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery Chief)

  3. Department of Surgery UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, New Jersey

    Chad R. Gordon (Chief Resident) (Chief Resident)

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Gorantla, V.S., Breidenbach, W.C. (2008). Hand Transplantation: The Louisville Experience. In: Hewitt, C.W., Lee, W.P.A., Gordon, C.R. (eds) Transplantation of Composite Tissue Allografts. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74682-1_16

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